never satisfied," I answered. "I must have the
voices _through_ the cone while I am covering the psychic's mouth."

To this "Mitchell" replied: "_We are doing all we can, and we will yet
be able to meet every demand you make upon us._"

"I am anxious for conviction," I said. "I want to secure the voice of
the psychic and your voice at the same time, 'Mr. Mitchell.' Can you do
that for me?"

He seemed to hesitate, and at last said: "_We will try._" I perceived in
his tone a certain doubt and indecision. Again we were permitted to hold
the psychic's wrists, and, as before, the cone was lifted and drummed
upon as if to show its position high in the air; but no voices came.
Hidden forces seemed to be struggling for escape beneath our hands; the
woman's brain seemed a powerful dynamo. I could not rid myself of a
sense that there was an actual externalization of the psychic's nerve
force, and with this conviction I could well understand why the command
had so often been given not to touch her unbidden. Suppose the poor
naked "astral body" were abroad and a strong light were suddenly turned
upon it!

Now came on a singularly engrossing game of "hide-and-seek." Convinced
that Mrs. Smiley was innocent of any trick in the movement of the horn,
I tried every expedient to satisfy myself that "Wilbur's" voice was
independent of her own; but I did not succeed. Mrs. Smiley spoke
_almost_ at the same moment but never precisely synchronous with
Wilbur's whisper. She answered all my questions perfectly unconcerned
and unexcited, lending herself to my experiments. All in vain. At no
time did I succeed in getting "Wilbur's" voice at _precisely_ the same
moment with her own, though the whisper, following swiftly on her
speech, interjected remarks as if echoing her questions. There was
always an approximate interval between her voice and the spirit whisper.

This was to me very significant, and strengthened me in my belief that
the entire process, while inexplicable, was, after all, not the work of
spirits.

When the gas was lighted we found the cone had been placed on the table,
a distance of forty inches from the utmost reach of the psychic's hands.
Her feet were twenty-three inches from the nearest leg of the table. We
carefully examined the tapes which were sewed to her sleeves. They were
tied, and the doubled ends tacked precisely as described so many times,
and to remove the tacks we were forced to use a hammer. It is useless to